ATTITUDE CONCEPTUALIZATION 1

Conceptualization of Attitude toward Beggars in Malaysia

Siti Inarah Hashim (G1515658)

PSYC 6470 Attitude Measurement and Change

Instructor: Dr. Harris Shah bin Abdul Hamid

Semester I, 2016/2017

Department of Psychology
International Islamic University Malaysia

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Introduction
Begging is a social issue affecting worldwide (Namwata et. Al., 2012) historically ages
ago (Dean, 1999). Although most prevalence in developing countries, this phenomena are also
observable in the developed nations as well. Poverties, disabilities, illnesses, illiteracies and
various other factors are linked in the former setting (Uddin et. al., 2014) while social exclusion,
drug addiction and homelessness rather than low socioeconomic level are found to be the cause
for begging activity in the first world country according to Driscoll and Wood (as cited in Uddin
et. al., 2014). There are also matters involving cultural and religion related perspective and
differences to be consider in this illegal income producing profession. Various negative
consequences can be discussed as the result of the widespread and uncontrollable of this activity
including from sociology, political, ethics and morality, economic and psychological point of
view. For this reason, it will be a worthwhile effort to dig deeper into this issue by start looking
into the object who are committing the activity and the aspect or factors surrounding or
influencing them.
Dromi (2012), referred beggars are among the street person, who ask money or any
form of help (Lankenau; Snow and Anderson as cited from Dromi, 2012) without returning the
favor and may cause public nuisance. In Malaysian context, according to Pusat Rujukan
Persuratan Melayu (2016), beggar is literally translated as pauper or person who begs or in
Malay language as peminta sedekah, or pengemis. Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia
(Social Welfare Department, Malaysia) is the nations body which govern the issues related to
beggars or what they may include in the definition of orang papa. As being defined by the
Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (2016), Orang papa can be implied to be someone who
may or may not be homeless, mostly appear on the street, without the source of stable income.
He or she may commit the act of begging but regardless, their presence and activity usually leads
to discomfort and anxiety among the surrounded publics. Therefore, by looking at the concepts
and definitions above, we can refer beggar as someone who perform the act of begging by asking
for charity usually in the monetary form and causing surrounding public discomfort. This may
include people who sell items like tissue paper or pens and this indirect begging act as a
camouflage for their true intention.

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The importance and purposes of measuring the attitude

It would be selfish to assume that studies about this issue should be centered only in
Malaysian context when the problem is indeed worldwide. However, since there is an absence of
already-published scale on measuring attitude towards beggar which implied impossibility of
adaption, the author felt that there is a need to take first step by putting relevant ideas and
concept regarding the conceptualization process. In relation to the current issues, Chan (2016)
wrote in a local newspaper during April this year that the Selangor state welfare department in
conjunction with a Bijak Membantu, Elak Tertipu campaign had managed to capture 338
beggars, an increase from 252 during the year before. The campaign urged the public to wisely
channel their money or resources in helping the poor (including beggar) into the right place
instead of giving them on street-begging occasion and this subsequently further encouraged them
(the beggars) to continuously and illegally manipulating the kindness and generosity of the locals
(23 April, 2016, The New Straits Times). There are also issues regarding illegal foreign vagrants,
scam syndicate, children manipulation (11 February, 2016, Utusan Malaysia), bad impression on
tourism sector (Arshad et. al., 2014) and various other negative consequences. Therefore, it will
be a value of importance should the scale measuring attitudes towards beggar is established in
facilitating further research especially on the reasons why the locals (donors) complied with the
beggars, their level of understanding about law, act and other current issues. On the other hand,
this scale may also be utilized in conjunction with other variables for study in another area for
example in psychology, the study of personality or the level religiosity in relation with the
measured attitude or many others.
The target audience
It is indeed very important to ensure the characteristics of our intended population for the
developed scale so that the test will be constructed for the right group of people and will give a
valid and reliable interpretation of results (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2009). Since the attitude intend to
be measured will be focusing on from the Malaysian perspective towards the beggars
(encountered in Malaysia), naturally this scale will targeted on Malaysian participants of all races

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who live or spend the majority of their time in Malaysia. He or she should have adequate
proficiency in reading and understanding the Malay language as it will be use in this scale, and
the age group selected will be the adults, thus from 19 years and above, for age 18 years and
below are considered a child according to Malaysian Child Act, (2001).

Relevant and related measure

Attitudes Toward Homelessness Inventory (ATHI) (Foster, 2013) was developed by
Adrianna Foster, a psychiatrist at Medical College of Georgia in United States of America. It is a
short, self-administered test, contains 11 items with 4 validated subscales which are: (1)Personal
Causation (PC homelessness is due to personal deficiencies), (2)Societal Causation (SC
homelessness is due to societal causes), (3)Affiliation (AFFIL - willingness to affiliate with
homeless people) and (4)Solutions (SOLN there are viable solutions to homelessness). Likert
6-points scale is used to assess the attitude direction (positive or negative) and strength in which
higher scores means a more positive attitudes towards the homeless, by summing the mean of
subscale and total scale score. This instrument was proven able to detect change in attitude after
educational intervention among different groups of people. However, since it is only been tested
among medical students, residents and nursing trainees, it is mostly applicable among the health
care personnel.
Components and dimensions of the attitude
Perhaps it will be a more systematic and easier approach to discuss the attitude towards
beggar based on its components, which are the affective (emotion), behaviour (action) and
cognitive (knowledge) parts (Aiken, 2003). Reviewed literatures suggested that each component
is presented by the following elements:
Affective (Emotion towards beggar)
1.Anxiety (Dromi, 2012; Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia; Kurniadi et. al., 2014)
2.Compassion (Ahamdi, 2010; Arshad et. al., 2014; Dromi, 2012; Kurniadi et. al., 2014; Matei

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et. al., 2013)

3.Concern (Dromi, 2012)
4.Disgusted (Ahamdi, 2010; Kurniadi et. al., 2014)
5.Empathy (Kurniadi et. al., 2014)
6.Fear (Dromi, 2012; Kurniadi et. al., 2014)
7.Guilty (Kurniadi et. al., 2014)
8.Spiritual or religion relatedness (Ahamdi,2010; Kurniadi et. al., 2014; Uddin et. al., 2014)
Behaviour (Action towards beggar)
1.Aggressiveness (Namwata et. al., 2012)
2.Long term help plan or donation in large scales (Arshad et. al., 2014; Kurniadi et. al., 2014;
Matei et. al., 2013)
3.Give them money (complying) (Ahamdi, 2010; Arshad et. al., 2014; Dromi, 2012; Kurniadi et.
al., 2014; Matei et. al., 2013)
4.Physical proximity (Dromi, 2012; Namwata et. al., 2012)
5.Verbal Interaction (Dromi, 2012; Namwata et. al., 2012; Matei et. al., 2013)
Cognitive (Mental processes or thinking about beggar)
1.Judgement/ Skepticism (Kurniadi et. al., 2014; Matei et. al., 2013; Namwata et. al., 2012)
2.Knowledge about begging issues (Kurniadi et. al., 2014; Matei et. al., 2013)
Dimensionally, attitude strength (the degree or magnitude) and direction (ambivalence)
whether it is positive or negative can be measured using scaling which will be discussed in the
next section.
The items and response format
In this measurement, Likert scale is most ideally used to assess the bi-dimensionality in
term of direction and strength of the attitude in the simplest and understandable way (Aiken,
2003). Items reflecting positivity will be listed and scales 1 to 5, ranging from strongly disagree,
disagree, neither disagree nor agree, agree and strongly agree will be applied. Response scores

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will be summed up, the highest and lowest scores will reflect the strongest attitude while the
higher the score, the more positive the attitude will be. For example:
I do not feel nervous when I was approached by a beggar
I gave beggars money should they ask for it
I know about local laws concerning the beggar
(1)Strongly disagree (2) Disagree (3) Neither disagree nor agree (4) Agree (5) Strongly Agree
The format planned for this scale are self administered, self scored, paper and pencil test.
Participants may also get access to the questionnaires via online test for convenience and
flexibility.

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References
(n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2016, from
http://www.jkm.gov.my/jkm/index.php?r=portal/left&id=Y0hIOFk4REdBa0hrRmxTe
U95VzhZUT09
Ahamdi, H. (2010). A study of beggars characteristics and attitude of people towards the
phenomenon of begging in the city of Shiraz. Journal of Applied Sociology, 39(3), 135-148.
Aiken, L.R. (2003). Attitudes, Values and Personal Orientation. In Psychological testing and
assessment (11th ed.). (pp. 294-310). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Group, Inc.
Arshad, M. R. M., Kamal, A. Z. M., Arif, N. D. (2014). Street begging in Kuala Lumpur.
International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 78, 1-5.
Beggar [Def. 3,4]. (n.d.). In Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from
http://prpm.dbp.gov.my/Search.aspx?k=beggar
Chan, D. (2016, April 23). Malaysians are too generous when it comes to beggars. The New
Strait Times. Retrieve from
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/04/141041/malaysians-are-too-generous-when-it-comes
-beggars?d=1
Cohen, R. J. & Swerdlik, M. E. (2009). The Science of Psychological Measurement. In
Psychological Testing and Assessment (7th ed.). (pp. 83-288). United States of America:
McGraw-Hill Premis.
Dean, H. (Ed.). (1999). Introduction. In Begging Questions: Street level economic activity and
social policy failure. West Sussex, UK : The Policy Press.

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Dromi, S. M. (2012). Penny for your thoughts; Beggars and the exercise of morality in daily life.
Sociological Forum, 27(4), 847-871.
Foster, A. E. (2013). Critical synthesis package: attitudes towards homelessness inventory
(ATHI). MedEdPORTAL. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.9343
Kamarulbaid, A. M. (2016, February 11). Imigresen akan usir pengemis asing. Utusan Malaysia.
Retrieve from
http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/nasional/imigresen-akan-usir-pengemis-asing-1.189047
Kerajaan Malaysia (2006). Undang-Undang Malaysia: cetakan semula akta 611 Akta KanakKanak 2001. Pesuruhjaya Penyemak Undang-Undang, Malaysia.
Kurniadi, M., Fresty, F., Kwan, K., Sharron, S., Abraham, J. (2014) Are We Still Giving Our
Money to Beggars? Prosocial Intention in between of Religion, Emotion, Corruption, and
Government Policy Advocacy. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(23), 18171826.
Matei, E., Dumitrache, L., Manea, G., Cocos, O., Mihalache, C. (2013) Begging Phenomenon in
Bucharest City: Dimensions and Patterns of Expression. Revista de cercetare [i interven]ie
social\, 43, 61-79.
Namwata, B., Mgabo, M. R., Dimoso, P. (2012). Categories of street beggars and factors
influencing street begging in central Tanzania. African Study Monograph, 33, 133-143.
Uddin, S. S., Aktar, M. A., Sultana, A., (2014). Beggars in Dhaka city: profession or compulsion.
Asian Journal of Business Economics, 4(3), 1-14.

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